Can freebies drive Xbox 360 and PS3 sales?

If you've recently bought a games console, there's a good chance you plumped for an Xbox 360. Microsoft has been pushing out some nice price cuts recently in an effort to ensnare any budding gamers who didn't know which console to buy.

And it's now making a play for owners of original Xbox consoles in the US, by offering them a free copy of Halo 3 if they buy an Xbox 360 and subscribe to the Xbox Live Gold service.

So is this the way to sell consoles in future? In the high definition war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, both sides have been giving away free HD DVD and BD movies in an effort to sell hardware. Still, there's no real evidence to suggest that this tactic works on a large scale.